Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an amusement machine of the pusher type in which a plurality of playing pieces such as coins, chips or marbles are used for gameplay, as well as one or more prizes.
Description of Related Art
Amusement machines of the pusher type have existed for years and can be subdivided into traditional pushers, in which playing pieces in the form of coins, tokens or chips are paid out to a player, and more recent variants in which the coins or chips circulate in a closed loop in the machine and reintroduced into the game by means of hoppers. Such an amusement machine is for instance described in EP 0 755 033.
In addition, it is known to add prizes to the playing pieces in order to make the game more exciting. These prizes can be added as prize tokens having the same shape as the playing pieces. According to another variant, the prizes have a different shape and are paid out to a player by a separate dispensing module. An operator then has to regularly add new prizes to the machine.